Finding grace, in the midst of my mess.

Fitted Sheets and Being Real

I’ve seen my Memaw’s fitted sheets and they look pretty when folded. Mine? Not so much. Ok, well I may have just given up on making them even look remotely “pretty”.

Here’s proof.

Oops. Did I just post this for all of the world to see? Yes. I did. I’m blushing now. I’m sure I’ll get over it.

I did want to make a point though(see, and you just thought I was being silly!).

You see, we all know that person, that mom, that woman in our life that seems perfect. In fact, she is likely pretty, organized, great at everything, seems to have it all together, and yes, probably folds her sheets nice and neat. So then we think that perhaps we need to put off such a vibe. So we fake it. We act like we have it ALL together and we don’t let anyone in. Especially, not in our closets where the messy, rolled up sheets stay. Because if we did? Someone might see that we, in fact, don’t have it all together, that we make mistakes, we cry, and no we don’t have perfectly folded sheets. What if I told you that “that” woman you idolize, yes HER, well she probably doesn’t have it all together either. Okay, well maybe her sheets are folded nice and neat…but she could fail in a different area than us, and maybe she is just as good at hiding it as we are.

You see, we are all broken in some way, shape or form. It is innate and we are born with brokenness. This is why we need one another. This is why we need Christ. We need one another to encourage, strengthen and build each other up – that’s fellowship. We need Christ to take our brokenness and mend it. We can’t do this on our own.

More importantly, we cannot be mended until we admit our brokenness. This goes for fellowship here on earth, as well as our relationship with God. You see, when we are real with our friends, they can begin to pray for us, encourage us and build us up according to our need. When we confess our brokenness to God, it is then, and ONLY then that the blood of Christ can take over. That’s right. We can’t be real and prideful at the same time. So along with being real, we must be humble. We have to recognize that Christ is what we NEED. We will always be messy and broken because that is our nature. However, when we have Christ, we have healing that is ongoing and within reach, no matter how badly messed up we may be.We just have to let him in. Yes, even into that scary, messy closet that you’ve been hiding for so long. Oh, yeah, you can’t just shut the door and move on. We have to let him look, assess and clean up. Oh, it won’t be pleasant, don’t get me wrong, but it will be worth it.

You see, I don’t know what your closet looks like, or even under your bed for that matter. I do know, however, that we all have a mess somewhere that needs a little tidying up. Let’s be careful to not assume that someone else is perfect or has it all together, because, rest assured, they don’t. However, let’s make sure that we are praying for one another, encouraging one another, and building each other up. After all, you never know when someone might be feeling awfully down about their closet full of messy sheets. ; )

Oh, and if you truly(not in a metaphorical sense) have messy sheets…here is a tutorial, brought to you by Martha Stewart herself! I might have hope yet. : )